Washington – Justice Sandra Day O’Connor once suggested a qualification for her replacement that had nothing to do with gender or political philosophy: expertise in Western water law.

“We have to find someone to put on the court who understands Western water, especially after I leave,” O’Connor said, according to U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo.

Allard said he had bumped into O’Connor at President Bush’s inauguration in 2000. In their conversation, he said, she defined herself not as a leading woman jurist or a swing vote, but as a Westerner.

O’Connor was raised on a cattle ranch and served in the Arizona legislature during the dam-building era of the late 1960s and early ’70s. Allard said she explained that she and Justice Byron White, a Coloradan who had already retired and has since died, were the only two on the Supreme Court with an in-depth understanding of the laws governing the West’s water and resources.

“With her retirement, we don’t have anybody who’s grounded in Western issues and particularly water law,” Allard said Friday.

So Allard dashed off a letter to the White House urging Bush to look for a nominee with that expertise.

“The West’s reliance on federal land and prior appropriation law is complex and often confusing,” Allard wrote. “Of the many legal talents that are required of a nominee, I hope the next nominee will possess an expertise in the area of Western resource and water law.”

Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., agrees that Bush should look at what part of the country a nominee comes from. But he added, “I think it would be an important consideration for him to look at putting a woman on the court” to replace O’Connor, the court’s first female justice.

The former Colorado attorney general left his imprint on the nation’s judicial debate as the only freshman among the “Gang of 14” senators who resolved a nomination deadlock in May, agreeing to allow votes on some of Bush’s judicial picks but retaining the right to filibuster other nominees.

The course of the Supreme Court nomination process, Salazar said, will rest almost entirely with Bush.

“I hope the president uses the occasion to bring the country together,” Salazar said.

He said he was encouraged that Bush said Friday that he and his advisers will consult with senators before offering a nominee. That was a key demand of the “Gang of 14,” and Salazar said it would be a welcome change in Bush’s nomination policy.

“That consultation was not there before,” Salazar said. “If he reaches out and gets input from senators on both sides of the aisle before making his nominations, he shouldn’t have a problem getting them confirmed.”

Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., agreed with Salazar that Bush should “engage in meaningful consultation with senators of both political parties and choose a highly qualified candidate whose views fall within the constitutional mainstream.”

Rep. Tom Tancredo, however, thinks that’s a lousy idea.

“I’m baffled by senators demanding that President Bush reach out to them. Last time I read it, the Constitution says, ‘advise and consent,’ not ‘complain and filibuster,”‘ said Tancredo, R-Colo. “The Salazar-McCain liberal 14 can’t be allowed to control a judicial branch again.”